CBA’s Johnson: Let’s Right Size the CFPB, Remove Politics from Regulation
LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Consumer Bankers Association (CBA) President and CEO Lindsey Johnson recently appeared on the Financial Brand Forum’s main stage as part of its Executive Leadership Series with Financial Brand co-founder Jim Marous to discuss the need for right-sizing regulations to enable America’s leading retail banks to compete, innovate, and meet hardworking Americans’ financial needs.
Below are key excerpts from Johnson’s conversation with Marous. To listen to the full interview, click HERE.
On the importance of ensuring consumers are protected regardless of whether they decide to do business with a bank or a non-bank:
“Our job is to make the regulatory and the operating environment better for our banks to be able to go out and do what they do. On the regulatory front – and really just on the competition front – I think banks are welcoming the competition from a lot of fintech players. […] Consumers should not have to guess if they've got the same consumer protections depending on who and where they're getting their financial services from. So our approach is like activity, like regulation […] There are a lot of good consumer protections that banks adhere to that should be extended to non-banks. It shouldn't even be a question.”
On industry moving toward an open banking ecosystem and whether the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has the statutory authority to regulate this part of the market:
“We've been moving to open banking in this new kind of ecosystem for quite some time […] You can be pro-open banking and still not like this rule. If [the CFPB] did have that authority, they should have at least fixed the problems in the market. That's what a regulator does. So stop screen scraping. Hold other players to a higher data privacy standard. And at a minimum […] make sure that the liability doesn't come back on the banks […] The consumer has the rights to their financial data and every bank should believe that that is the right thing […] I hope that there's some regulatory parameters that make sense and that address the problems in the marketplace and don't exacerbate the problems that are already there.”
On the need for reforming the CFPB to ensure it is the credible, durable regulator that consumers deserve:
“How do we take politics out of regulation where it never should have been? And I think that we actually have an opportunity to do that […] Let's fix the CFPB. Let's right size the CFPB. Let's get them focused in the right way. Everybody's on the same page. Let's keep regulators [and banks] in the room. We're not ever going to agree on everything. We understand that. But if we all have the best interest of the consumer, if we actually do cost-benefit analysis for the consumer, then I think most of these issues will get resolved...”